Happy 2nd Anniversary, The Melting Pot of Huntsville!

A nod to Stephen Wysock at Aviagen – may you have another 10 great years with the company.  Happy Birthday to your better half today.

Tonight, while enjoying the company of our server, Malarie (no, not malady or malaria, but named after the character on “Family Ties“), my wife and I observed the goings-on at the Melting Pot.

Friendly workers, seemingly happy.

The owner, Steve Hagins, and his son David in MBWA mode.

Steve’s proud (but not biased, of course) about his son’s second sense when it comes to customer service, able to detect a problem before it’s a problem and find a solution before his father knows there’s a problem.

Steve is well on his way toward handing the business over to his son in the next few years, allowing himself to take a long-term break, if not retire completely.

We remember the opening two years ago.

So does Steve.

After 19 months in preparation, working something like 125 days in a row, Steve was in automatic mode as the Melting Pot was set to open.

Realising his father was near a breaking point, David recommended he take a couple of days off.

And collapse he did.

We’ve all been there, Steve.  We rarely know when we need rejuvenation until someone near and dear points it out.

We’ll be back at the Melting Pot because you put customer Numero Uno.

Speaking of customer service, I am focusing on helping another friend, Gary Shelton, and the product invention he shares with Joe McGinty over at Invetex.  If you’re in the computer rack business and want a little extra security and peace of mind for your customers, give Invetex a look-see.  An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of gold where data and cash flow is concerned.

It’s time for our annual support of UCP during An Irish Evening, hosted at the new Jackson Center.  We’ll bid on some Irish gifts to share with our nephew, Jonathan, and his lovely new fiancée, Tammy, who’re planning an Irish-themed wedding soon.

‘Twill be a chilly evening tonight and I ran out of birdseed earlier this week, a mass of sparrows taking over the birdfeeders and cleaning me out.  Maybe the raccoon in the attic won’t wake me up in the wee hours of the morning.

But Merlin will be at home tomorrow and the missus and I will have our two feline frolickers back under one roof again.

While the French (the French?) want to bomb Libya and the Germans (the Germans?) want to wait, there’ll peace in this household on the weekend.

Somebody tell that loudmouth at the New York Times to shut his trap so we can spread the love of franchising all over the world.

The new liberal way is to make everyone rich enough we can afford to fund our own social services or cause célèbre – no more depending on government assistance for the underprivileged, only for the companies in power, of course.

Obama tricked everyone (or was he tricked?) – now that he’s a millionaire, he’s a Republican wolf in Democratic sheep’s clothing like all the others on the list of “I’m wealthy and I’m not giving up my hard-earned cash” adherents to Reaganite Randianism – the whole healthcare/welfare thing was a typical politician’s ruse until the purse was full.

And I wonder why my presidential vote is counted but never counts…

Someone suggested we bomb an airliner over Libya and call it Lockerbie’s Revenge – be careful what you wish for ’cause I guarantee your wish will be what you want and not what you need.

If only I could tell you what you don’t really know…

The usual suspects in the lineup.

But we can still break free.

Wild beyond our wealthiest dreams!